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Spring has officially sprung, gardens are bright with early flowers and enthusiasm for the new growing season is running high. To help nurture that eagerness to get growing, here are two new books for your consideration.

This just-published book is a charmer. Every page is filled with colour photos showing children doing fun stuff like sowing seeds for leafy greens along lines forming a child's initials in a pot of soil. The greens are shown sprouting, then being cut for use. The last photo is of the greens regrown and ready for another cutting. With each photo are simple directions or a commentary.

A pizza herb garden shows children planting and tending a circular bed divided by white stones into wedges, one for each herb. "Gorgeous garden waste" shows kids how to make "health food for your garden" by composting.

In this book, young readers will see other children sowing seeds indoors and out, watering and fertilizing, digging potatoes and carrots, eating peas out of the pod, creating a herb-filled window box and a strawberry pyramid, and growing tomatoes in hanging baskets. They feed birds and house bees, save seeds, grow new plants from cuttings, and learn how to deal in environmentally benign ways with common pests like aphids, slugs and snails.

Ideal for children age five to 11, Grow Your Own for Kids guides and inspires in its 30 green gardening projects with their easy, step-by-step instructions.

Features that make this an excellent quick-reference guide are a finely detailed index and an eight-page table of contents that outlines each section of every chapter. Whether you're interested in creating a "compost sandwich" raised bed atop a piece of lawn, arranging vining flowers, fruits and vegetables against walls and fences, finding suitable plants for really hot spots, or gardening on balconies, fire escapes and rooftops - it's all here.

Chapter 9, Small-Space Vegetables, explores useful strategies like inter-planting, succession planting, incorporating edibles into the ornamental garden, and growing in hanging baskets and bags of soil. There are instructions for using vertical structures (tepees, A-frames and more) and a guide to miniature vegetables.

Chapter 11, Flower Gardens and Borders, includes tips for growing roses in small spaces and containers, with a list of roses suited for containers. The final three chapters profile annuals and perennials; climbers, ground covers and grasses; trees and shrubs for small spaces.

A section titled Good Gardening Practices has a simple guide to assessing soil quality and extols the many virtues of compost. Fertilizer terminology is explained, with organic fertilizers receiving the author's nod of approval. Recommended also is the art of luring beneficial insects, both predators and pollinators, into garden spaces. Organic controls for insect pests and weeds are highlighted.

Although it is framed as an "idiot's" guide, this is one smart, thorough book.

GARDEN EVENTS

VIRAGS meeting. The Victoria Rock and Alpine Society will meet on Tuesday at 7: 30 p.m. at the Gordon Head United Church, 4201 Tyndall Ave. Doors open at 7. David Sellars, well known plantsman specializing in alpines, will speak and share his photographs on the topic Chaos in the Rock Garden: Putting Theory into Practice. Visitors are welcome.

Orchid meeting. The Victoria Orchid Society will meet on Tuesday at 7: 30 p.m. at the Garth Homer Centre, 813 Darwin Ave. Calvin Wong, owner of Tropical Gardens Orchids, will speak about Neofinetia falcata, known as the Wind Orchid or Samurai Orchid, whose compact size, long history, mystique, fragrance and variety of leaf forms and flower colours have created a craze among orchid growers around the world.

View Royal meeting. The View Royal Garden Club will meet on Wednesday at 7: 30 p.m. in the Shoreline Community School, 2750 Shoreline Dr. Mark Hedger of Scent-Sational Plants will present a show and tell on maximizing enjoyment of the "off-season" garden. He will bring plants to sell. There will be a juried minishow and a sales table. Visitors are welcome. Information at 250-220-5212.

hchesnut@bcsupernet.com

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Two gardening books sure to inspire you

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